En Provence is the Bonnie Hunter Mystery I've been fretting over for the last few weeks. Different color choices were debated. There was a totally different color palette selected. And I wasn't sure I liked it. So I trekked off to the local fabric shop and went with Bonnie's original colors. I didn't have a magenta, or much for purples. Here is what I bought--

The magenta, five purples, and three neutrals. Okay, there are enough fabrics now. Step One was pretty easy--neutral 4 patches. I made a gadzillion of REALLY NEUTRAL 4 patches. I could have cut squares and saved myself the trouble, but I want to play nicely!

Step Two is published. RATS! I didn't read the directions ahead of time--I need Tri Recs rulers. Nope, I don't have a set. Amazon Prime to the rescue!

WOW--they arrived on Tuesday! Yippee. And it was downhill from there. I carefully watched Bonnie's video on how to use them. Then I cut and made two. Easy Peasy! So then I made 17 more. Yup--easy. I stopped to eat supper and watch the news. Went back to sew more. Hmmm---they LOOK like the others. Why is the other side not right? ARRRGGHHH! And being the patient person I am I did this--

I chucked them in the garbage! I hate diagonal seams. I hate paper piecing. This is like wonky diagonal seams that you paper piece! And you have to be exact! After a break (that involved chocolate) I watched the video AGAIN. I laid out a sample. And made 30 units. Whew! So I pulled the ones out of the trash to see what I could salvage. Most of them. So now I have this--

All of Step Two is done! And I only had a little of this--

Leftovers! My brain hurts. Which side do you use to think about this? Right? Left? I must be lacking whatever side it is! All though this I reminded myself how much I loved last year's Alletaire mystery. Remembered I need to challenge myself to try new things. Honestly--this was torture. Why--I'm not sure. But I have all of Step Two made!! WOOHOO!!

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comments:

I actually love that tri-recs ruler, but the first time using it was confusing about how to match up the notch to make everything come out correctly. I have 50/100 of the magenta units done and only 80 of the neutral 4-patches done. But the rest of the pieces are cut and the strip sets for the 4-patches are sewn. I got distracted making doll sleeping bags yesterday.

This is my third mystery quilt, the first time I have had the weeks sewing finished and it's only Wednesday. I am so amazed, hopefully I can keep it up. How much fun it would be to have the blocks ready to assemble when the assembly picture is posted.

I have been using my Accuquilt GO Big for the blocks so far. I have the Tri Rec rulers and Bonnie's new ones, but I try to use my GO when I can, it is soooooo fast and accurate. sieglinde

Congrats on getting Step 2 finished....despite the agony. I can do those Tri-Recs pieces OK. I did a Halloween project for quilt club that had ONE tri-recs square for the nose of a Jack-o-lantern and do you think a couple of those ladies could get it to come out right? They could NOT! It's paper piecing that I can't wrap my brain around, it just doesn't work that way. We had a project at quilt club that was a paper pieced star. The first segment went fine, but the next one was completely WRONG. I took everything home, thinking it would work better without distractions. NOT. The project laid around my sewing room for about a year and then....wait for it....I just threw the whole thing in the trash!

For some reason my units made with these rulers are never as accurate as I would like. We had to make a heap of them for another Bonnie mystery and Keryn said"Oh, they're fine!" but it still irked me that they weren't all consistent. Guess I should just practice more, sigh.

They look great. I believe there is a learning curve to this quilt, one of the main reasons I decided to do it. I used the creative grids instead of the tri-recs rulers and every one came out great. I'm pleased that I am still caught up.

I did these pieces a couple of year ago, for Celtic Solstice I think, but wasn't too happy with the way they came out, although I did finish the quilt. So this year I am going to watch the video first and then be very careful how I do them.I finished step 1 the first Wednesday but haven't touched En Provence since. I didn't even look at Step 3 until Saturday. Thank goodness it's another easy one.The only fabric I had to buy was the constant magenta. Your magenta is more vibrant than mine but I'm going to resist the temptation to go back to the fabric store.Sarah in wet California

glad i'm not the only person having problems with the tri recs rulers.having gotten the first ones done (but not great!) i took them apart to sit for awhile.When clue 3 came up (more tri recs!) i decided to take a good look at my rulers.and guess what? on my rulers the measuring lines do NOT line up with each other.

So what i did to solve my problem was to cut the center pieces the called-for 3.5 inches.and then for the wing pieces i decided to give myself some leeway, so I cut those at 4 inches. The pieces were much easier to sew together, and a breeze to trim up after they were sewn.Boy what a differece that extra half inch makes!